News Headlines:

Obama re-elected US President

7 Nov 2012, 1002 hrs IST
, AGENCIES

Barack
Obama on Wednesday (Nov 7) won a historic election to get a second term as US
President, overcoming a stiff challenge from Republican Mitt Romney defying
concerns over his handling of economy and anxiety over the
future.

A votary of strong ties
with India, 51-year-old Obama, the first black American to occupy the White
House, scored what turned out to be a comfortable victory over Romney after a
bitter and costly campaign running over months with his rivals attacking him on
issues of unemployment and
recession.

Disproving
predictions of a narrow victory in a very tight race, the incumbent won the
election in crucial battleground states after a neck-and-neck race in the
initial stages, getting 303 electoral votes against 206 of Romney in a college
of 535 votes.

Notwithstanding
doubts over his ability to revive economy from the effects of the crisis, the
worst after the Great Depression of 1930s, voters appeared to have chosen status
quo leaving Democrats with control of the Senate and Republicans the House of
Representatives.

What tilted
the race in Obama's favour was the massive swing he got from the victory in
California, which has the largest number of 55 electoral votes, and Ohio with
18. Till California was called Romney had led over
Obama.

Obama also walked away
with wins in the swing states of Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire,
Wisconsin and Michigan.

Pollsters had even apprehended
a tie after the Presidential debates and surveys, but in the ultimate analysis
Obama got over 300 votes but not anywhere near his 2008 score of
349.

After the networks
declared Obama the winner, 65-year-old Romney called him and congratulated him.
"This is a time of great challenge for our nation. I pray the President will be
successful in guiding our nation," he told his
supporters.

The President
reciprocated his sentiments and congratulated him on a hard-fought campaign.

In his speech to his cheering
supporters in his campaign headquarters in Chicago, Obama promised to work with
leaders of both the parties to face the challenges ahead in creating new jobs,
reducing deficit and reforming
taxes.

Earlier, Obama tweeted
to his supporters after his victory: "This happened because of you. Thank
you."

Obama, born to a white
American mother and Kenya-born Harvard-educated economist father on August
4,1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes only the second Democrat after Bill Clinton
to secure two White House terms since the World
War-II.

The President paved the
way to victory defending Democratic bastions in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and
Michigan. Obama, who romped to power four years ago as an agent of hope and
change, secured his second term on the back of a fiercely negative
campaign.

He branded former
Massachusetts Governor Romney as elite and indifferent to the middle class after
the businessman-turned politician surprisingly outperformed him in the first of
the three high-stake presidential
debates.

The President
campaigned offering a "fair shot" to the middle class and to fulfil his pledge
to end the war in Iraq.

Now,
Obama will have to perform on the promise of his historic reforms of health care
and Wall Street. He is also likely to look abroad, especially the issue of
thwarting Iran's nuclear
ambitions.

Obama may have also
been helped at the last minute when superstorm Sandy devastated the US East
Coast, bringing out his skills in tackling the aftermath.